Workshop 2: Assistive user interfaces and control strategies for adaptive human-robot interaction

Organizers: Francesca Cordella, Loredana Zollo, and Surjo Soekadar

Timeslot: 9:30 – 12:30
Room: Carré 2H

Website: http://www.unicampus.it/eng/research/research-unit/biomedical-robotics-and-biomicrosystems/biorob-workshop-u-care-2018

Abstract:

A huge amount of people worldwide lives with some form of disability: according to the WHO about 15% of the world population suffer from a disability that limits their ability to execute various Activities of Daily Living. The use of robots as assistive and rehabilitation devices provides great potential for these individuals to regain independence and return to being an active part of society. Since robot technology is evolving to a level where robots can interact with humans in their daily lives, they must be able to equally interact with people of varying abilities. Therefore, reliable and intuitive human-robot interfaces customized according to the user’s particular needs and based on his/her residual capabilities are very important for maximizing system usability and user acceptance. The most challenging aspects in the development of assistive technologies are the design and management of the interaction between complex systems in order to have a customizable solution based on the specific needs of the user. Usability and acceptability of the assistive device are influenced by the strategy adopted for controlling it. In this workshop, we want to focus on systems and strategies for monitoring and reconstructing patient state and intention during human-robot interaction. User needs will be at the centre of our analysis and therefore also the user involvement in controlling the assistive devices will be analysed. Control strategies for fully autonomous systems or for letting the user be in the machine control loop will be considered. Covered topics will be:

• User motion intention detection
• User state estimation
• BCI for HRI
• Invasive and non-invasive interfaces
• Assistive robotics
• Prostheses
• Robot-aided rehabilitation
• Robot control through interfaces
• Haptic feedback